iOS Daylight Saving Time bug hits Europe (and the US too?)

Update: Some of our commenters are reporting that they're also seeing hour-early alarms in parts of North America. It's not yet clear if this is widespread or idiosyncratic, and if all 4.x devices are affected.

Update #2: Engadget points out that alarms set never to repeat, or set to repeat every day, are unaffected; just the selective repeat alarms (only weekends, only weekdays) are getting munged.

The iOS bug that caused recurring alarms to go off an hour early in New Zealand after its switch to Daylight Saving Time subsequently hit some territories in Australia following their switchover a week later. Apple promised a fix to the problem, and it's likely the fix will be bundled with the forthcoming iOS 4.2 update -- but that update hasn't come soon enough to stop the problem from striking Europe. With the switchover to Standard Time in Northern Hemisphere nations, European and Middle Eastern countries that have switched are now experiencing the same problem we saw in New Zealand and Australia, but in reverse: Europeans' recurring alarms are going off an hour later following the switch to Standard Time.

In New Zealand, the issue eventually resolved itself. A couple weeks after the switch to DST, recurring alarms started going off at the correct time again. The going theory was that Apple's time zone programming in iOS relied on obsolete protocols for DST; New Zealand used to switch to DST on the first Sunday in October, but switched to the last Sunday in September in 2007. It's possible the issue may eventually sort itself out in Europe as well, but not before a lot of Europeans who rely on their iPhones to wake them wind up late for work.

In less than a week, Apple's largest customer base, its US iPhone users, will likely have their recurring alarms go off an hour later, too, unless Apple can address the problem before November 7. In the meantime, for Europeans who rely on iOS devices to wake them up in the morning, you have two options. Either set your recurring alarms to go off an hour earlier than normal (i.e., set your alarm to 6 AM if you actually want to wake up at 7), or abandon recurring alarms entirely and remember to set a single-use alarm every night. That's what worked for us in the Southern Hemisphere.

It's shocking Apple hasn't addressed this issue in a timely fashion. The bug got widespread coverage following the switch to DST in the Southern Hemisphere, so Apple had plenty of warning before the switch to Standard Time in Europe. Now, rather than the mild annoyance experienced by a couple million Southern Hemisphere iPhone users being woken an hour early, many more European users will have to deal with far greater inconveniences. Waking up an hour early when NZ switched to DST a bit over a month ago was certainly irritating, but that's nothing compared to the multitude of Europeans who'll be late to work or school because of this bug.

View Tags

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/11/01/iphone-dst-bug-causing-al…

Categories

iPhone iOS

Update: Some of our commenters are reporting that they're also seeing hour-early alarms in parts of North America. It's not yet clear if...

Add a Comment

Sign in »

87 Comments

Filter by:

Tate Allen

Went off an hour late today! Luckily my internal clock was only off by 20 mins.

November 08 2010 at 3:22 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Carolyn

iOS 4.1 is allowing me to write this comment thanks to my repeat alarm if 5:55am going off at 4:55 am. However my non repeat of 6:00am did nit go off. Also because I don't work every day I turn off my alarms when I don't need to get up meaning even though it was a repeating alarm it's been off for the past 2 days. Hope this bug gets fixed soon!

November 04 2010 at 8:26 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

John Walker

Alarm set for 6:30am / repeat every day. Alarm goes off at 5:30am. Location- Philadelphia, PA.

November 03 2010 at 10:04 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

1 reply to John Walker's comment

John Walker

Screenshot here: http://4rdesigns.com/iOS_4.1_alarm_error.jpg

November 03 2010 at 10:41 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Mike

I'm confused - some people are saying the alarms are going off an hour early, others are saying an hour late. Which is it?

November 03 2010 at 9:12 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

1 reply to Mike's comment

Emp

Mike - in southern hemisphere, when we fall back, they spring forward, when we spring forward, they fall back. the seasons are reversed down there...

November 07 2010 at 12:55 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Keith Davis

My wife's iOS 4.1 3GS is having the problem that ANY alarm set to ANY kind of repeat is going off 1 hour early. However, an alarm set with NO repeat works fine.
Also, my iOS 4.1 4G is working just fine.

November 03 2010 at 12:37 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Michael

I'm in Melbourne, Australia and have had my alarm go off an hour early since last iOS update - AND it IS set to repeat.

November 02 2010 at 5:49 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

andywickstrom

Hey,

I am in Chicago and use the iPhone 4. This is the second day in a row that my alarms were screwed up. I had them set for 6am and 6:15am and the phone went off at 5:00am. I hit the snooze thinking the actual alarms would go off, but they didn't. I got up at 7:30...ugh...

November 02 2010 at 11:15 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Cadillacart

I live in california and I am getting this problem. It happens when I set a repeating alarm of any type, unlike your update2 suggested. Individual "one time" alarms work fine.

November 02 2010 at 9:21 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Chris K.

Yep. I was late for work. Instead on 7.05am alarm went off 8.05am. Boss wasn't happy, so was I.

November 02 2010 at 7:45 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Dan

My first alarm went off an hour early. I deleted and recreated the other 3 and all have gone off as expected.

November 02 2010 at 6:03 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply